JStove’s back with a fresh review of the Goliath Gang box for Necromunda: Underhive to see if they are really worth it, out of the box.
Jstove here, and today I’m unboxing Goliath Gangers.
Are mohawks still in style?
Last time I talked about Necromunda, I had the new plastic Eschers in front of me and I was asking the question, “Is there enough stuff in one box to put a decent gang roster on the table?” You can read that article here. If you don’t care about hair dye and platform heels on your models, I’ll save you the trip. I think the Escher box is phenomenal and that it can produce a great 10 model gang, whether you want to get really nasty with double nightshades or play it safer with bolters and plasma pistols.
Today, we’re going to take that approach with the Goliath box. Are there enough parts and enough gas in this box to make a 10 man gang that will stand up to the girls… or the Orlocks, or the Chaos Cultists, or the Genestealer Cultists, or anyone else coming down the pipe in the future?
In the box.
The Goliath box uses the exact same design as the Escher box. You get two frames of 5 guys, with a load of weapons on them. Since both frames are the same, you effectively get two of everything. This means you have 2 stubbers, 2 combi-plasma stubbers, 2 combat shotguns, 2 rivet cannons, 2 hands holding grenades, 2 of each of the Goliath signature melee weapons, and a handful of stub cannons. This looks like a lot of variety for your build options, but I am not convinced.
Like with the Eschers, I asked the question, “Do I have as much gear as I can actually afford?” The answer is no. I am very suspicious about the Goliath box and I’ll explain why. Here’s the short answer: I think half the weapons in the box are dead weight and useless, and you get next to none of what you really want.
The Space Marine Curse.
Goliaths suffer from what I call the Space Marine Curse. Space Marines have the best infantry stat-block in 40k. They shoot well, they’re strong and tough, and they’re well protected by power armor. The Goliath is in the same boat: He’s strong, tough, huge, and he’s also got the best armor for the job. Furnace plates aren’t bad and they protect the Goliath where he most wants to be, which is in hand to hand combat. But the Space Marine Curse is that although on paper you look like you’re the best, in terms of point economy you’re bottom of the barrel. Goliaths, like Space Marines, are expensive, and you pay a premium for S4, T4, and decent armor.
That’s not to say that Goliaths are competitive. I think there are builds for this house that are absolutely abusive and will really take the wind out of the Eschers or anyone else that comes down to mess with them. The problem I have is that I don’t believe that the Goliath gang can put together an effective gang in one box. I think you need at least a 3rd sprue just to get enough firepower to get 10 effective fighters for your roster.
The Goliath weapons are all expensive traps.
I’m a huge fan of GW’s new design direction for Necromunda. They have given all the houses individualized weapons to give them more character and style, instead of just letting everyone pick from the same master list of vanilla lasguns, autoguns, and stubbers. The problem here is that I think the Goliaths lost more than they gained from this concept. As a general rule, Goliaths want to get into a fight as fast as possible where their superior stats and their furnace plates will allow them to beat the hell out of everyone and shrug off pretty much everything except a plasma shot to the jimmies. The biggest problem? They’re slow and most of their signature weapons don’t help them accomplish that goal.
Goliath Gangers are already expensive. My guess is that model for model, they will be more expensive than any other gang member in any other house gang because you’re paying for furnace plates and superior core stats. They’re also tubby and slow, only a Juve has a chance of catching an Escher or anyone else for that matter, and he’s only S3 T3. The biggest problem with being slow isn’t that you won’t catch the people you want to beat up, it’s that your Toughness doesn’t count when you’re being shot at. In Necromunda, nobody cares if they wound you with a lasgun. They only care about HITTING you so that you’re PINNED. Once you’re pinned, your options are limited. You will have to sacrifice actions to stand up and stop being pinned. Therefore, paying all those extra credits to be T4 doesn’t help you, since you’re scared of a lasgun shot whether you’re tough or not.
When the Goliath does get into a fight, he’s got a pretty good chance of knocking the hell out of his opponent with his S4, since he’ll wound pretty much everyone on a 3. As a general rule, this means that he’s already about as nasty as he can be, and having a big expensive melee weapon like the renderizer or the power hammer doesn’t really help him that much. It’s just paying extra credits to make people that are already dead more dead. In the hands of a Goliath, an ax or a dagger is all he really needs.
Furthermore, Goliaths have the stimm slug stash, an item that adds 2 to his movement, strength, toughness, and removes a flesh wound when he uses it. At the end of his turn, he rolls a die and on a 1 or 2, he takes an injury roll. But is the risk worth the reward? ABSOLUTELY. It solves all his problems, heals him, makes him run faster, and turns him into a truck. What’s the best part? IT’S CHEAPER THAN A POWER HAMMER OR A RENDERIZER AND MAKES HIM MORE EFFECTIVE AND RESILIENT.
The Goliath’s super melee weapons are priced right out of the competition.
Another weapon that I think is a real loser is the rivet gun. I’m just not a fan. Goliaths can’t shoot for crap and this thing only has 9” of range… on the long range. If you’re a Goliath within 9” of an enemy, instead of shooting him with a rivet gun, you should just Hulk out on stimm slugs, charge the other guy, and twist his head off. There’s also something to say about the stub cannon. Yes it’s S5, but it has absolutely no accuracy modifier, it’s range is poopy, and it’s 20 credits. It’s bad at the only job it has, which is to be a cheap basic weapon that you can rely on to pin enemies at range. It does none of those things.
Then, we get to the combi-plasma stubber. This is another weapon that I think is a joke. I actually really like plasma pistols because they’ll kill anything they hit and have a +2 accuracy modifier at 6″, but that stubgun duct-taped to the plasma pistol is 15 extra credits. For a Goliath gang, you don’t have the speed to move that pistol into short range before you get hit like the Eschers do. Furthermore, grenade launchers and shotguns are cheaper, and they’re phenomenal.
There’s not enough of the stuff that does work.
If the melee weapons are all wrong, here’s where the Goliaths go right: combat shotguns and grenade launchers. I want both Champions to have grenade launchers. If I can afford it, I want one on a Ganger and one on the Leader too! And everyone else should grab either frag grenades or the combat shotgun. Why am I a fan of grenades? Because Goliaths need gap closers. Your opponent should be always pinned, all the time. If you can see him, you should be throwing bricks at him and he should be keeping his head down. If he pins you first, your fat, slow, 4” movement Goliath butt will never get into melee. But Goliaths can’t shoot for crap. Only the Leader starts with a 3+ BS, and everyone else is a 4+ or worse and has no access to ranged weapons with generous short range modifiers that give you a better chance to hit. This is why the Goliath needs shotguns and grenades.
First, grenades are great because even when they miss, they don’t miss. Especially in the Underhive. When grenades deviate, they stop when they hit walls. This means that when your opponent is hugging cover in a rat hole trying to funnel you into a chokepoint, all you have to do is throw party poppers down the hallway. You’ll still tag something even if your poor Goliath has cross-eyed ballistic skill. Since Goliaths have across the board access to the grenade launcher, which can pop shots up to 24” and is relatively cheap compared to other weapon options, this is truly their workhorse ranged weapon.
The combat shotgun takes a little more thinking to appreciate, but it’s amazing on the Leader since he can actually shoot straight. It’s effectively a bolter that only shoots 12″, but that only means it will kill anything he shoots with it, just closer. It’s S4, D2, and Rapid Fire 1. This is the only gun in the Goliath gang that you should ever bother shooting with. Everything else should be a template or a blast marker. Speaking of templates, the alternate ammo on the combat shotgun is also a born winner. Don’t disrespect the spray because it’s only S2… it’s also SCATTERSHOT, which means that anyone it touches takes D6 hits. That’s absolutely not bad against models that are mostly T3. With a bit of luck and no ballistic skill required, you’ll clear a room, or at least pin everyone in it.
Can this gang work out of the box with what you have available?
My answer is no, I don’t think it can. You probably have as many combat shotguns and grenade launchers as you can afford since these weapons aren’t cheap. Getting 2 of them aren’t bad. The real problem is that you have almost none of the weapons you need on the rest of your gang to make it work. Goliaths need stub guns and cheap melee weapons to fill up roster slots. They’re seriously lacking in the box because so much space is taken up by weapons that frankly don’t contribute to the game plan. Furthermore, if you try to get all the guns you need, you’ll lose out on being able to take any Juves to give your gang a future because you’ll need to pay the ganger tax for them. You could, theoretically, make an effective gang that gets all ten models in the box on the table, but only if you drop the grenade launchers and shotguns and only give everyone hand grenades. If you go down this road though, you’re still screwed, because again, there are not enough parts in the box to do it properly.
What do I believe is the solution for House Goliath? Personally, I’m torn. I don’t think Juves are good in their gang since they’re weak and they’re unlikely to get any work done with the inaccurate weapons they can afford. Even though Juves are needed in campaigns as the future of their gang. But I also just want bodies on the table, because the Eschers have no trouble getting ten models in a roster thanks to their cheap lasguns. I imagine that the Orlocks and other houses won’t have much of a problem doing that either. This can put Goliath at a disadvantage when it’s time to make the bottle check.
I think in order to truly create a Goliath roster worth taking to a campaign, you’re going to have to dig deep. You either need at least a 3rd sprue of parts to fill out the gang, or you have to order some resin bits from Kromlech or Anvil to convert up your boys or reach back into your old collection of Retromunda Goliaths for models that were armed more economically.
Everything in the Goliath box is either too expensive or not enough of the cheap stuff you need.
